The process of independence of the Nuevo Reino de Granada a has been understood from various perspectives and historical readings. However, a constant element in these readings is the coexistence of ambiguities such as tradition and modernity, repression and freedom, and even the terms associated with the elite and the people.
For a good part of the historians who have addressed the issue of independence and the consolidation of the Colombian nation, the key players to understand this process are the Criollos, typically presented as the engine of revolt for independence. There are many assessments that have been granted to this sector of society and his revolutionary project. However, the common factor of these approaches lies in considering that from the moment that the Criollos, the American elite, decide to reclaim their sovereignty against the Spanish crown, the republic started to forge Criollo and configured to lead to a strong nation, free and sovereign.
This paper aims to clarify first, the discourse of differentiation as a legitimating the hegemonic project of the Criollos as elite in the Virreinato de la Nueva Granada (1770 - 1810). Second, an analysis of the Criollo as an organic intellectual, to appreciate as more than a crisis of identity, the criollos had to face a crisis of representation, from the theoretical perspective of Antonio Gramsci, confirms the identification of an ambiguity in the Criollo rhetoric and also assesses the speech introducing the concept of differentiation as a possible answer to the discussion of the overvaluation of the Criollo identity.